North America Weather and Climate Topics

DISCUSSION: As Spring kicks into high-gear across the continental United States, many of the climatologically-expected synoptic (i.e., large-scale weather phenomena), mesoscale (i.e., approximately city/town to state-scale weather phenomena) are coming into play all across the country. Attached below is a perfect example of such an atmospheric Spring-time phenomena in the way of lake-breeze impacts emanating from the Great Lakes region of the United States. Note how in the image below (courtesy of the Suomi NPP VIIRS satellite imager) you can see the relative impacts of lake-breezes emanating from Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and Georgian Bay. You can see how the lake-breezes acted to displace much of the cloud-cover along the shorelines of the aforementioned water bodies. Lake-breezes, in their strongest form, can also have a pronounced influence on localized temperature changes based on the cooler air emanating from the inner portions of the respective water bodies acting to cool the air temperatures in cities and towns typically within a few miles of the shoreline. In some cases, this cooling can still occur despite persistent southerly flow trying to bring in warmer air further north provided that the southerly flow is not sufficiently strong (i.e., less than or equal to 10 knots). To see more neat weather content from across the United States, be sure to click here!